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In this paper, we investigate whether changes in the degree of entry regulation or in the degree of public ownership are associated with higher industry total factor productivity (TFP) growth of south European economies. We first estimate relative TFP levels and TFP growth rates across manufacturing and service industries of Greece, Italy and Spain using an endogenous growth accounting model. Then, we estimate the TFP growth impact of entry regulation and public ownership, within a productivity convergence framework. The empirical results indicate that a reduction in the degree of entry regulation is associated with higher industry TFP growth. On the other hand, the TFP growth impact of public ownership, although negative, is not statistically significant. The econometric estimates show that technology transfer and technological catch-up are both important for higher productivity growth of south European industries.

After studying this article, the participant should be able to: 1. Understand the indications for metacarpal fixation. 2. Understand the rationale for various surgical treatment options, based on high-level evidence where available. 3. Describe selected operative techniques and their postoperative management. Metacarpal fractures are extremely common, constituting one in five fractures that present to the emergency department. Although many metacarpal fractures can be treated nonoperatively, some require surgery. The purpose of this CME article is to present a practical, up-to-date guide to the management of these common injuries. A review of nonoperative management, surgical indications, and selected surgical techniques is provided. The authors reviewed the literature related to the treatment of metacarpal fractures, and the highest level evidence available to help guide decision-making is presented. Metacarpal fractures can often be treated nonoperatively, although some fractures will benefit from surgical treatment. Although there is some high-level evidence to guide decision-making, there are many clinical scenarios for which there is little high-quality applicable research. As a general principle, the treatment option that achieves the desired reduction and degree of fixation, allows early motion, and minimizes soft-tissue injury should be preferred.

We investigate herding in the Saudi stock market, where more than 95% of the total trading is initiated by the individual investors. Based on readily available stock data, we find evidence of pervasive herding among the market participants. Although herding is prevalent irrespective of market conditions, it tends to get stronger in periods when the market rises and the trading activity intensifies. Traders are found to be indifferent to important stock categories in their herd behavior. Further analysis suggests that the correlated behavior of Saudi traders is unlikely to be induced by the common movements in fundamentals. Considering the unique composition of the market clientele, we interpret these findings as constituting market level evidence supporting a commonly held belief in the literature that the individual investors are more likely to be noise traders.

Sugars containing fructose are emerging as the dominant public health targets for their role in the epidemic of overweight and obesity. This position is largely supported by ecological observations, rodent models of overfeeding and select human trials. Higher level evidence from systematic reviews and meta-analyses of controlled dietary trials has yet to show convincingly that fructose-containing sugars behave differently from any other forms of energy (especially refined starch and fat). Prospective cohort studies, which provide the strongest observational evidence, have shown an association between risk of overweight and obesity and fructose-containing sugars consumed as sugar-sweetened beverages but not as total sugars or other important sources of added sugars such as cakes, pastries and sweets. Comparative analyses show that high intakes of other highly palatable foods such as refined grains, processed meats, red meats, French fries and potato products, as well as physical inactivity may play an equal or greater role in weight gain and the risk of overweight and obesity. The contributions of these factors are also difficult to disentangle from that of sugar-sweetened beverages owing to their collinearity with sugar-sweetened beverages as part of a Western dietary pattern and lifestyle. Attention needs to remain focused on decreasing overconsumption of all foods associated with overweight and obesity. Sugar-sweetened beverages and foods are certainly an important place to start but should not draw attention away from the issue of overconsumption in general.

This paper conducts an in-depth evaluation on the role of industrial agglomeration in productivity growth of China's industrial sector by exploiting large dataset of manufacturing firms active in 176 three-digit industries and in 2860 counties. We also complement our analysis with the 2004 Census data to capture the agglomeration of small firms. Unlike previous studies that often focused on specific industries, we assess the impact of agglomeration in a comprehensive range of industries and extend the scope of analysis to upstream industries as well. Moreover, we explore how the ownership of Chinese firms shapes their ability to benefit from agglomeration effect as well as to act as the source of externality. We find that congestion and fiercer competition offset the benefits of agglomeration for firms operating within agglomerated regions. On the other hand, a co-location of large firms contributes significantly to productivity. We also find a more important contribution from the agglomeration of upstream industries than from that of the same industry. Private enterprises are the primary source of agglomeration effects especially in upstream industries, whereas their productivity is boosted most by the agglomeration of other private enterprises. We reckon that industrial agglomeration contributed up to 14% of the productivity growth in China's industrial sector between 2000 and 2007.

Summary Using enterprise data for the economies of Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS, this study examines the effects of corruption on productivity. Corruption is narrowly defined as the occurrence of informal payments to government officials to ease the day-to-day operation of firms. The effects of this “bribe tax” on productivity are compared to the consequences of red tape, which may be understood as imposing a “time tax” on firms. When testing effects in the full sample, only the bribe tax appears to have a negative impact on firm-level productivity, while the effect of the time tax is insignificant. We also find that the surrounding environment influences the way in which firm behaviour affects firm performance. In particular, in countries where corruption is more prevalent and the legal framework is weaker, bribery is more harmful for firm-level productivity.

Summary In India, average calorie intake has declined even as real monthly expenditure has increased. Since cross sectional evidence suggests a positive relationship between the two variables, the trend emerges as a major puzzle. Using household-level data from four recent rounds of National Sample Survey data on consumption expenditure and a novel instrumental variable estimation strategy we find that rising expenditure on non-food items is one of the factors that has led to the calorie intake decline. We provide causal evidence for such a food budget squeeze in the case of one type of non-food item, viz. expenditures on cooking fuel.

To determine the independent effectiveness of adjunctive therapies when provided in conjunction with botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT-A) injection for focal spasticity in adults with neurological conditions.Nine electronic databases.A systematic search was performed to identify randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the benefit of adjunctive therapies following BoNT-A injection.Two authors extracted the data independently. Each trial was assessed for internal validity and rated for quality using the PEDro scale. Articles were further appraised using the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) evidence classification to construct concise clinical recommendations.The search identified 12 studies that reported on the effects of eight different adjunctive therapies following BoNT-A injection in adults with focal spasticity. No high level evidence was identified. The mean PEDro score for the 12 studies was 5.6 (SD = 1.6) and the clinical recommendations provided were Grade U, indicating the effectiveness of the adjunctive therapies was unknown or unproven.There was insufficient evidence to support or refute the effectiveness of any of the commonly prescribed adjunctive therapies following BoNT-A injection for focal spasticity in adults.

Bribes can either put ‘grease’ or ‘sand’ in the wheels of commerce, affecting firm performance (at the micro-level) and, ultimately, economic growth (at the macro-level). This study examines this issue using a unique and exceptionally rich dataset on over 2000 micro, small and medium scale enterprises in over 30 cities in the Philippines. Using instruments such as industry-location averages of corruption to deal with endogeneity and drawing on unique contextual information on public–private interactions on bribery, this study finds evidence that corruption greases the wheels of commerce for Philippine SMEs, particularly in cities with poor business environments. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Both analysis of international trade and the knowledge resource theory of the firm imply that language skills should play a vital role in exporting. This may be apparent to large multinationals with sites in many different linguistic locations, but we show it is less obvious to smaller companies. With data on the language used by each of a large sample of European small and medium sized enterprises in their export markets we test and estimate the effects of language assets on language performance in export markets and on export sales. Controlling for the possibility that language skills may be acquired by exporting, we find a very substantial export return to linguistic expertise, indicative of unexploited gains from investment in languages. There is also evidence of greater under-investment in language skills in English-speaking Europe, which we show can be a prediction of Konya’s (2006) trade model.

Using a large sample of U.S. firms during 1964–2007, we find that conditional conservatism is associated with a lower likelihood of a firm's future stock price crashes. This finding holds for multiple measures of conditional conservatism and crash risk and is robust to controlling for other known determinants of crash risk and firm-fixed effects. Moreover, we find that the relation between conservatism and crash risk is more pronounced for firms with higher information asymmetry. Overall, our results are consistent with the notion that conditional conservatism limits managers’ incentive and ability to overstate performance and hide bad news from investors, which, in turn, reduces stock price crash risk.

This article provides evidence about the effect of innovation on employment in Argentina in the period 1998–2001. In particular, we quantify the effect of process and product innovations on employment growth and the skill composition. Our results show that: (1) Product innovations have a positive effect on employment growth biased toward skill labor; (2) Process innovations do not affect employment growth or composition; (3) There are no heterogeneous effects in technology intensity and size; (4) Most of the contraction in employment in this period was explained by noninnovators.

Pressure injuries are a significant health concern in all clinical settings. The current body of research on pressure injuries reported in the literature presents primarily low level evidence. The purpose of the current study was to identify and prioritize pressure injury research issues. The approach entailed evidence scoping and implementing a formal consensus process using a modified nominal group technique based on the Research and Development/University of California at Los Angeles appropriateness method. Sixteen Australian pressure injury experts participated in five consensus voting rounds in May to June 2015. From 60 initial research issues, the experts reached agreement that 26 issues are a priority for future pressure injury research. The highest priorities were strategies to assess skin and tissues, appropriate outcome measures for indicators of pressure injury healing and recurrence, heel pressure off-loading and shear reduction strategies, economic cost of pressure injuries and their management and effectiveness of skin moisturizers and barrier products. Developing a prioritized research agenda, informed by clinical and academic pressure injury experts, can assist in reducing the burden of pressure injuries by identifying topics of the highest need for further research. A web-based nominal group voting process was successful in engaging expert decision-making and has wide-reaching international appeal in facilitating cost-effective consensus methodologies. The priority list generated from this research is currently used in Australia to inform government investment in pressure injury research.

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a complex disease necessitating extensive clinical guidelines. The guidelines from the American Heart Association (AHA) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) have been markedly extended during the last 12 years. We examined the evidence base for these changes.IE guidelines published by AHA and ESC were reviewed. We categorized and combined guidelines into 3 time periods: (1) 2004 (AHA) and 2005 (ESC), (2) 2007 (AHA) and 2009 (ESC), and (3) 2015 (AHA) and 2015 (ESC). Number of recommendations, classes of recommendations (I, II, or III), and levels of evidence (LOE) (A, B, or C) were assessed and the changes over time.From period 1 to period 3, we found a statistically significant increase in total number of IE recommendations from 37 to 253 (P.01), a 6.8-fold increase. There were a significant decrease in LOE A (from 7 [20.0%] in period 1 to 4 [1.6%] in period 3, P.0001, a 57% decrease), a nonsignificant decrease in LOE B recommendations (from 17 [48.6%] in period 1 to 115 [45.9%] in period 3, P=.29, a 6.8-fold increase), and a significant increase in LOE C recommendations (from 11 [31.4%] in period 1 to 134 [53.0%] in period 3, P=.02, a 12.2-fold increase).The number of IE guideline recommendations has increased 6- to 7-fold during the last decade without a corresponding increase in evidence. These results highlight the strong need for more clinical studies to improve the level of evidence in IE guidelines.

Proteins in the fibrous amyloid state are a major hallmark of neurodegenerative disease. Understanding the multiple conformations, or polymorphs, of amyloid proteins at the molecular level is a challenge of amyloid research. Here, we detail the wide range of polymorphs formed by a segment of human TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) as a model for the polymorphic capabilities of pathological amyloid aggregation. Using X-ray diffraction, microelectron diffraction (MicroED) and single-particle cryo-EM, we show that the 247DLIIKGISVHI257 segment from the second RNA-recognition motif (RRM2) forms an array of amyloid polymorphs. These associations include seven distinct interfaces displaying five different symmetry classes of steric zippers. Additionally, we find that this segment can adopt three different backbone conformations that contribute to its polymorphic capabilities. The polymorphic nature of this segment illustrates at the molecular level how amyloid proteins can form diverse fibril structures.

The role of physical interventions (surgical resection and surgical/radiological ablation) for liver metastases of colorectal cancer has changed dramatically over the last 10–15 years. Whereas in the 1990s, when only those patients with up to three unilobar metastases were considered for any form of such intervention, our present approach to these physical interventions is determined by how much viable disease-free liver can be preserved (most authorities accepting 25–30% disease-free future remnant liver volume) and the possibility of further such interventions if the disease recurs in the liver. There is increasing evidence that for smaller tumours (

We study how firms alter investment projects to mitigate exposure to political uncertainty. We examine deal-level merger data and find that, in addition to delaying and forgoing merger announcements, acquirers shift merger announcements earlier in time to avoid the period between announcement and effective dates overlapping an election, shift targets geographically away from election states, decrease the size of election-year deals, and shift from equity to cash financing for election-year deals. These results are stronger for acquirers with tighter financial constraints and deals more likely to be financed with equity and show financing matters to firms’ responses to election uncertainty.

This paper examines how Chinese firms acquire knowledge and experience in international markets by attracting returnees using an original firm level survey from Guangdong province. It finds that there is a strong and positive relation between a firm's choice of hiring returnees and its propensity to embark in FDI. Moreover, it shows that not all returnees contribute equally to firms' internationalization. It is mainly those individuals in the most strategic functions, such as management and sales to determine both the propensity and the level of overseas direct investment. Finally, it finds that the presence of returnees is particularly effective for less experienced firms since it can help reduce the time taken to build capabilities and provide direct access to the knowledge necessary to invest abroad. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A growing literature investigates how firms' innovation input reacts to changes in the business cycle. However, so far there is no evidence whether there is cyclicality in the effects of innovation on firm performance as well. In this paper, we investigate the employment effects of innovations over the business cycle. Our analysis employs a large data set of manufacturing firms from 26 European countries over the period from 1998 to 2010. Using the structural model of Harrison et al. (2014), our empirical analysis reveals four important findings: First, the net effect of product innovation on employment growth is pro-cyclical. It turns out to be positive in all business cycle phases except for the recession. Second, product innovators are more resilient to recessions than non-product innovators. Even during recessions they are able to substitute demand losses from old products by demand gains of new products to a substantial degree. As a result their net employment losses are significantly lower in recessions than those of non-product innovators. Third, we only find resilience for SMEs but not for large firms. Fourth, process and organizational innovations displace labor primarily during upturn and downturn periods.

This report offers an extensive analysis of the effects of the EU Single Market. It sheds light on four interrelated aspects: It first reveals the asymmetric economic performance across member countries, which also mirrors structural differences. These differences in economic outcomes are next confronted with measures of the Single Market, economic institutions, changes in demand patterns, industrial turbulence and producer price developments. Next, the changes in value chains are tracked over time, and also put into a global perspective. Eventually, firm level evidence complements the findings. The results are highly relevant for economic policies at the member country and the EU level.

This study extends previous literature on the association between Confucianism and corporate decisions by examining Confucianism’s influence on board gender diversity. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms during the period of 2001–2011 and geographic-proximity-based Confucianism variables, I provide strong and consistent evidence to show that Confucianism is significantly negatively associated with board gender diversity, suggesting that the proportion of women directors in the boardroom is significantly lower for firms surrounded by strong Confucianism atmosphere than for firms located in regions with weak Confucianism atmosphere. This finding also implies that Confucian philosophical system has important impacts on business ethics and women’s status in corporate governance. Moreover, GDP per capita, the proxy for economic development level in a province in which a firm is located, attenuates the negative association between Confucianism and board gender diversity. Above results are robust to different measures of Confucianism and board gender diversity and are still valid after controlling for the potential endogeneity between Confucianism and board gender diversity.

We study the speed of price reactions to positive and negative demand and cost shocks. Our findings suggest that price adjustment lags vary in line with the predictions of optimal price setting models. Moreover, we find that the firms' reactions are asymmetric, and that these asymmetries cannot be fully explained by any single theoretical model of asymmetric price adjustment. Overall, these results suggest that the reaction to monetary policy shocks may depend on which firms or sectors are particularly affected by them and, therefore, that richer models are needed to fully understand the effects of monetary policy.

We examine the impact of political turnover on economic performance in a setting of largely unanticipated political change and profoundly weak institutions: the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Exploiting census-type panel data on over 7,000 manufacturing enterprises, we find that the productivity of firms in the regions most supportive of Viktor Yushchenko increased by more than 15 percentage points in the three years following his election, relative to that in the most anti-Yushchenko regions. We conclude that this effect is driven primarily by particularistic rather than general economic policies that disproportionately increased output among large enterprises, government suppliers, and private enterprises—three types of firms that had much to gain or lose from turnover at the national level. Our results demonstrate that political turnover in the context of weak institutions can have substantial distributional effects that are reflected in economic productivity

Judicial quality affects firms' exports through its efficiency in settling business contract disputes (transaction costs). Firms in regions with better judicial quality will have a comparative advantage in exporting the goods that source heavily relationship-specific intermediate inputs (contract-intensive), due to cost saving from efficient dispute settlement system. We study this issue using export data of over 77,000firms across 30 provinces in China. We explicitly control for firm heterogeneity of self-selection into exporters, and firm heterogeneity in their responses to judicial quality. We find that firms operating in provinces with better judicial quality export more products that require relationship-specific intermediate inputs, and judicial quality is most important for foreign-owned firms.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to review the global pattern of surgical management of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), particularly in diagnosis, outcome measurement, and management. Methods: We performed a systematic search in duplicate for surgical studies addressing FAI published up to June 2013. Study parameters, including sample size, study location, surgical intervention technique, diagnostic imaging, outcome measures used, sex distribution, and level of evidence, were obtained. The number of trials and cumulative sample size were analyzed. The surgical interventions, sex distribution, outcome measures, and diagnostic imaging used were compared between geographic regions. Results: We identified 105 studies reporting surgical interventions for FAI. Most studies were completed in North America (52 studies, 3,629 patients) and in Europe (44 studies, 3,745 patients). Asia (3 studies, 49 patients) and Oceania (6 studies, 394 patients) had smaller contributions. There were no studies from South America or Africa. Most research performed in North America, Europe, and Oceania investigated arthroscopic FAI surgery (55% of studies) followed by surgical dislocation (33%), and miniopen (15%) and combined approaches (8%). Methods of diagnosis were consistent worldwide, with radiography being the mainstay of diagnosis (84% of studies). Case series were the most common type of study globally (75% of studies). Outcome measures varied by region; Harris hip scores were most common in North America, Oceania, and Asia, whereas Non-Arthritic Hip Scores and Western Ontario McMaster scores predominated in Europe. Conclusions: Global surgical trends for FAI show a predominance of North American and European studies, studies of lower level evidence, and inconsistent use of outcome measures. However, patterns of diagnostic imaging, sex proportions, and predominance of arthroscopic techniques are consistent worldwide. Future research should focus on development of reliable validated outcome measures and international collaboration to conduct high-quality research and improve our understanding of FAI diagnosis and management. Level of Evidence: Level IV, systematic review of Level I-IV studies.

It is well-documented that international enterprises are more productive. Only few studies have explored the effect of internationalization on productivity and innovation at the firm-level. Using propensity score matching we analyze the causal effects of internationalization on innovation in 10 transition economies. We distinguish between three types of internationalization: exporting, FDI, and international outsourcing. We find that internationalization causes higher levels of innovation. More specifically, we show that (i) exporting results in more R&D, higher sales from product innovation, and an increase in the number of international patents (ii) outward FDI increases R&D and international patents (iii) international outsourcing leads to higher sales from product innovation. The paper provides empirical support to the theoretical literature on heterogeneous firms in international trade that argues that middle income countries gain from trade liberalization through increases in firm productivity and innovative capabilities.

The authors focus on the lack-of-access component of the digital divide. Against a backdrop of federal policy that entwines poverty with broadband access, the authors use original statewide data to test a two-step model, drawn from the New Poverty Studies, of barriers to household-level broadband adoption. The authors generate a measure of the propensity to adopt broadband and test the relative role of poverty in the household decision-making process. The authors conclude by noting the continuing relevance of access as a component of the digital divide and providing support for the continuation of assistance efforts to close the household broadband access gap.

In quest’articolo utilizziamo diverse metodologie per stimare l’equazione di Verdoorn con l’obiettivo di saggiare l’ipotesi della presenza di rendimenti crescenti di scala nel settore manifatturiero nelle regioni europee NUTS-2 per l’intervallo temporale 1995-2006. Estendiamo l’equazione di base di Verdoorn considerando la dimensione spaziale sia in termini di prossimita sia di gerarchia geografica. I nostri risultati corroborano la presenza di effetti spaziali, identificano rendimenti crescenti di scala a diversi livelli gerarchici ed evidenziano un certo grado di eterogeneita spaziale. L’analisi svolta evidenzia il ruolo dello spazio nei processi di crescita della produttivita regionale, sia in termini di prossimita sia di gerarchia geografica. La produttivita delle regioni Europee e caratterizzata da rilevanti spillover spaziali sia positivi, possibilmente legati alla diffusione della tecnologia, che negativi, possibilmente dovuti a effetti di competizione spaziale.

This paper offers a broad characterisation of inter-industry R&D flows in Italy. It exploits a novel ‘R&D performer-beneficiary’ matrix built on survey-based information collected by Istat, the Italian National Institute of Statistics and relies on matched enterprise and patent data. The study identifies net R&D performers, including specialised R&D suppliers, maps the type and number of industries they serve and sheds some light on the industries that most benefit from the R&D carried out by other industries. It further depicts a number of inter-industry R&D linkages and technology clusters. Finally, relying on information about the technology class of patented inventions, it assesses the level of technological specialisation or diversification of the innovative output of R&D performers.

Alcohol-related problems are experienced most directly at the local level. There have been significant strides in evaluating locally based alcohol policies and prevention strategies. This article draws from this existing body of research to answer three questions: What is known about effective local interventions and policies? What are the main challenges facing local action on alcohol and how can those challenges be addressed? How can local action on alcohol be sustained? This article reviews evaluated local alcohol interventions and policies, focusing on several countries where these initiatives have been evaluated: for example, Australia, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. The positive outcomes associated with community-based initiatives are summarized and features of successful local action are identified. Although current research finds a number of positive outcomes of local alcohol interventions and policies, a number of challenges of this work remain; these challenges include providing adequate training, resources, and tools for local action; building local resource streams and coalitions to sustain expertise; sustaining long-term commitment to monitor and evaluate the effects of policies; and addressing the vested interests of community stakeholders in alcohol policy efforts. Lessons learned and recommendations for future community-based alcohol prevention initiatives are drawn from the findings and challenges of current work.

This paper investigates whether the firms’ productivity may be subject to spillovers from the internationalization behavior of firms within the same local production system. Using a unique dataset for a representative sample of Italian firms we find evidence that the sectorial and geographical agglomeration of exporters improves the labour productivity of domestic non exporting firms. We also show that the potential of productivity spillovers from exporting activities emerge mainly for small firms. Our results are robust to controls for the agglomeration of family firms, dynastic management and human capital of employers, i.e some of these specific features of Italian firms that may affect the capacity of domestic non exporters in receiving the technological and managerial externalities from the proximity with exporters and multinationals.

This article examines the effects of imported intermediary inputs and in-house research and development (R&D) on productivity growth, using firm-level data from Indian manufacturing industries for the period 2000–09. For this purpose, we adopted two empirical frameworks: production function and growth accounting method. The estimated results from the production function framework suggest that the impact of imported intermediary goods on output is reasonably sizable. The role of R&D activities under this framework is found to be insignificant. The analysis based on the growth accounting suggests that total factor productivity of firms is linked with import and R&D activities.

Unit specific effects are often used to estimate non-spatial efficiency. We extend such estimators to the case where there is spatial autoregressive dependence and introduce the concept of spillover efficiency. Intuitively, we present an approach to benchmark how successful units are at exporting and importing productive performance to and from other units.

This paper assesses the evidence and investigates some of the mechanisms by which the most recent banking sector crisis might have affected the supply side of the UK economy. We find clear evidence that the banking sector crisis affected credit supply to businesses and caused bank lending to decline. But we do not find much evidence of the heterogeneity in performance between different industrial sectors that would have been expected if banking sector impairment had been the key factor holding back productivity growth. Consistent with this we do not find strong evidence that a lack of reallocation of resources across businesses has been a substantial drag on productivity growth.

Learning objectives After studying this article, the participant should be able to: (1) Describe and apply the best current high-level evidence in carpal tunnel syndrome. (2) Design a treatment plan to offer tourniquet-free, sedation-free local anesthesia for patients who wish it or who are at high risk with sedation. (3) Describe the evidence and outcomes as they relate to splinting carpal tunnel patients after surgery. Summary This is the third Maintenance of Certification article on carpal tunnel syndrome. Hentz and Lalonde summarized the best literature in 2008 in the first article. The second article, by Shores and Lee, presented the best evidence regarding assessment, surgical treatment, and outcomes from the literature published between 1999 and 2009. In this article, the author has concentrated on topics not covered in depth in the first two articles and provides an update of the highest level evidence on important topics from 2009 to 2013. Although there is some Level IV and V evidence cited in this article, most is Level I, II, and III.

This study investigates the impact of political connections on corporate financing decisions using a sample of listed Pakistani firms over the period 2002–2010. We find a positive and significant link between long-term debt and political connections, which reflects greater access to credit. Such preferential treatment escalates with the strength of the connected politician. Furthermore, positive effects of political connections are seen to be stronger for large firms and those affiliated with business groups. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Contribution of axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) is questioned for positive sentinel node (SN), micro-metastasis and isolated tumor cells but also for macro-metastasis. The aim of this work is to precise why a prospective randomized trial is necessary and the design of this trial. Why? For positive SN, the scientific level evidence appears insufficient for validation of ALND omission as a new standard. Rational is presented with non-sentinel node involved rate and number of NSL involved at complementary ALND, axillary recurrence rate, disease free survival rate and adjuvant treatment decision impact. How? The proposed Sentinelle Envahi et Randomisation du Curage (SERC) trial will randomly assign to observation only or complementary ALND with positive SN. The aim is to demonstrate the non-inferiority of ALND omission versus ALND.

This paper examines the relationship between productivity differentials and firm turnover in Vietnamese manufacturing. We utilize firm-level data between 2000 and 2009, including the year 2007, when Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization. Our major findings are twofold. First, the productivity of entrants, survivors and exiters increased simultaneously from 2006 to 2007. This result suggests that the cut-off productivity level increased after trade liberalization. Second, the resource reallocation between firms was facilitated after the liberalization. These findings are consistent with the implications of the recent models of international trade and firm heterogeneity.

By precipitating a clustering effect and encouraging the establishment of links among firms and academic and research institutions (the so-called triple helix), science parks are expected to have both direct and indirect effects on promoting regional technological capacity. Based on a provincial-level panel dataset over the 1997–2009 period together with adopting patents as an indicator of innovative capacity, this study's empirical results show that science parks, in terms of various measures, indeed have a significantly positive impact on regional patenting. More importantly, science parks play a key role in coordinating research and development (R&D) collaboration across various R&D performers within the region and indirectly contribute to upgrading the regional technological ladder. Moreover, we find a positive innovation-enhancing effect brought about by R&D cooperation between industries and universities, rather than research institutes, highlighting both the importance and inherent problems of Chin...

Low productivity is an important barrier to the cross-border expansion of firms. But firms may also need external finance to shoulder the costs of entering foreign markets. We develop a model of multinational firms facing real and financial barriers to foreign direct investment (FDI), and we analyze their impact on the FDI decision. Theoretically, we show that financial constraints can affect highly productive firms more than firms with low productivity because the former are more likely to expand abroad. We provide empirical evidence based on a detailed dataset of German domestic and multinational firms which contains information on parent-level financial constraints as well as on the location the foreign affiliates. We find that financial factors constrain firms’ foreign investment decisions, an effect felt in particular by firms most likely to consider investing abroad. The locational information in our dataset allows exploiting cross-country differences in contract enforcement. Consistent with theory, we find that poor contract enforcement in the host country has a negative impact on FDI decisions.

This article examines the antecedents and performance consequences of capabilities developed from the use of information technology (IT) in a sample of 186 Italian large enterprises. Attention is given to the influence of industry and firm characteristics on the creation of capabilities and on the returns from IT investments. Our work makes three principal contributions. First, the IT diffusion patterns reveal that these technologies have a dual nature. Some capabilities derived from IT use (i.e., administrative capabilities) diffuse evenly across industries because the underlying technologies easily adapt to industry- and firm-specific conditions. In contrast, the use of IT in supporting other capabilities (such as those related to product development) is less developed and more concentrated in the high-tech and information service sectors. Second, using a resource-based perspective, this articles shows the positive effects that firm-specific preconditions have on the accumulation of IT resources and capabilities that exhibit a rare diffusion at the industry level. Third, given industry-level differences in competitive environments, we show how the value appropriation of capabilities that firms have developed using IT depends on industry type, with hi-tech and information services industries exhibiting lower profit returns.

Among the non-employer firms who intend to hire, the higher state-level minimum wage could dissuade them from becoming employer firms. Using data from Business Formation Statistics in the US, we assess the effect of within-state variation in minimum wage on three state-level outcomes: count of business applications for Employer Identification Number (EIN) from firms intending to hire employees; count of firms who transition into employer firms after their application; and average time taken by firms to transition into employer firms after application. Based on 1,692 state-quarter observations from 2005 to 2013, higher state minimum wage is negatively associated with a count of applications for EIN and count of applicants transitioning into employer business and slows the transition of applicants into employer businesses. The findings are robust to a placebo test and an alternate specification controlling for common correlation between state and year. Additional analyses on new business activity show that state minimum wage has no association with the portion of the state population starting new businesses or the share of opportunity-based (vs. necessity-based) new businesses in a state. The findings have implications for policymakers considering the relevance of minimum wage in encouraging the transition of non-employer firms intending to hire employees into employer firms.

We thank Dr Nitta for his interest in our recent article ‘Perioperative outcomes of laparoscopic minor hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma in the elderly’ and his insightful comments (1).

This study investigates the impact of e-commerce and R&D on productivity, using a unique panel dataset obtained from Taiwanese manufacturing firms for the period from 1999 to 2002. We specifically consider the network externalities of e-commerce and employ the system generalized method of moment (GMM) technique to deal with the endogenous problem of e-commerce adoption. The empirical results show that both e-commerce and R&D capital have a positive influence on productivity, while R&D exhibits a larger productivity-enhancing effect. We also find a complementary relationship between e-commerce and R&D on enhancing productivity. Crucially, the inter-industry network externality of e-commerce significantly contributes to productivity.

Summary Despite a dramatic rise in the instances of anti-dumping (AD) duties, their impact on the targeted firms is not clear. Using detailed firm level data we find robust evidence that the US AD duty led to over 12 (or five) percent decrease in labor productivity (or TFP) of targeted Chinese firms. We also find that firms with high initial export intensity experience both a higher decrease in exports (and total sales) and a bigger drop in productivity due to the US AD duties. Our results suggest reduced economies of scale as a possible mechanism for the drop in firm productivity.

This work reviews benefit-based principles to measuring responsibility for carbon emissions at the sectoral level using environmental input–output analysis. Several new emissions multipliers are proposed to measure sectoral carbon efficiency. These principles are used in an empirical analysis of carbon emissions in China, and differences between the principles are compared. The results indicate that all principles considered can prevent double-counting of emissions but that different principles may lead to significantly different attributions of responsibility for carbon emissions and to different multiplier values for particular sectors. Electricity and heat supply is found to be the sector with the highest emissions responsibility under all but the consumer responsibility principle, as well as the highest carbon multiplier under all principles. However, this sector's responsibility under producer responsibility principles is greater than that under other principles. Basic metals and transportation and post and telecommunication are among the top five sectors with the greatest responsibilities under all but the consumer responsibility principle, whereas construction has the highest consumer responsibility among all sectors. The pros and cons and policy implications of each principle are also discussed.